We need more RIP signs

We've put out the bulk of the Halloween decorations already (I'll put the pictures up on or after Halloween of the full look of the place with all the stuff out including what we haven't put out yet).  This year, we're adding a grave mourner, a remote controlled zombie crawler, a lined coffin, and the beginnings of a homemade zombie to the "production".  We've also added some red Christmas lights inside some of the coffins that have "risen" from the ground to give them an "inner glow."

I've made some more shelves.  Here's the ones I mentioned that I made for Donna's room, we hung them asymmetrically:

I also made some for Gabe's room.  We stained them since it went better with his room colors (and we hung them differently):

I just finished some for Megi's room.  We made one a rectangle instead of two squares, and we painted them diagonally (The two colors are dragon fruit and a sort of teal variation).  I haven't hung them yet, because we still need to finish painting her room:

Speaking of painting Megi's room, she gave us an "ultimatum" recently to get it done.  She, on the first attempt we know of, managed to climb out of her crib and fell to the floor, so we need to finish her room soon.  Here's the colors from the beginning of it, they're a plum color for most of the walls and a light blue for the accent color:

We like the dragon fruit color from the shelves I built so much, we plan to buy more and paint the closet doors that color.

I still haven't followed my own advice on writing, and as such, I haven't done any writing.  I'm taking the week off for Halloween, maybe I can at least get some progress made on something.

If you're wondering about the blog title, "RIP signs" is what Gabe called headstones the other day, and yes, we do need to make some more for our cemetery this next off season (just like I need to work on the hearse, etc)

Also on the list of projects we need to do is to go through the kids' toys and eliminate some that they never play with by either throwing them away or giving them to charity.  Gotta make room for the next cycle of toys and get rid of some of the clutter.

The furniture savings is coming along nicely, though we keep vacillating between which project to approach first:  a new desk for the office, a new bed/mattress for our bedroom, or hardwood floors for the whole house.  The first two cost about the same (about $2400 each), and the flooring will probably cost about ten times as much for as much space as we need done.

 That's all I have right now.  Thanks for reading.











And send happy thoughts to my wife.  Just because.  She's wonderful and all that, and I love her.

Mephistopheles Has Started Decorating

So, we've started the decorating for Halloween House this year.  It's both a sad and exciting time.  It's sad, because our neighbors no longer decorate (they were the original Halloween House).  It's exciting because now WE are Halloween House.  Shawn, the neighbor who used to decorate but has moved, left us most of the cemetery fencing, window coverings (that make it look like the house is boarded up and condemned), and partial coffins (that look like they're erupting from the ground), so we're touching them up/repainting/etc to put them out.  We've already hung the bride and groom from the eaves along with some bats, spiders, and a huge spider egg pouch.

Changing from grey marble to beige marble for the cemetery columns

We drove to Illinois for the wedding and returned safely.  But I can safely say that Bishop girls between the ages of 12 and 18 months don't travel well for long distances.  Before that seems to be fine, and so far, the data suggests that after 2 years they're good, too.  Not great, mind you, but not screaming because they're too stimulated to take a nap.

As expected, Donna did not do too well as a flower girl.  I was actually surprised that she walked halfway down the aisle during the rehearsal before she started crying in terror.  I had to go help her during the actual wedding.

Over the four day period, Megi didn't really get any of her naps.  She normally gets at least two hour long naps each day.  Instead, she over the four day period, got about three hours of nap total.  :-(

That's all for now, hopefully, we'll have some decorating pictures to post in the next blog update.  Thanks for reading.